Photos and Tweet from
Another MAB FABulous session at MAB 14
Managing an Agency Business meetup series.
Come next time
to meet founders of Boston's top design, dev and marketing agencies
This event featured a panel discussion on "Managing Your Agency's Sales Pipeline"
with topics
including how to better qualify leads, managing your daily sales
responsibilities,
improving your
scoping process and increasing your close rate on new deals.
Here are notes from this session on your Sales
Pipeline:
Give free
advice to connectors in your target markets
Get permission
from clients to do your own PR
Share
challenges publicly (podcast/Post) as process to solve… be that network of
solving
Know target
personas
And their
networks
Who is funded,
hiring. Read Venture-Fizz
Outbound
prospecting = big pipeline
Find, meet,
qualify, pitch, close
Read
Predictable Revenue – segmentation of roles. cold-callers, Account person,
Know Persona
details – their issues, needs, size, fears, competitors, what tech are they
using,
Segment
qualifying
A/B split test
everything
Quality – Tier
1 - Priorities
Quantity – Tier
2 – General category
Practice – Tier
3
Owler – target
account news
Google Alerts
Have top 20
accounts listed and printed… share with potential partners/everyone
Load emails to
systematically touch - Yesware, Sendbloom, Outreach.io
Ask prospects,
“How is this digital project going to help your business?”
Pre-qualifying
– Speed process by asking if they appreciate this:
“up-front
contract” – setup in advance “I assume you will want to know how
we work,
prices, relevant case studies.” I will need to ask budgets, timing, how
you make this
decision”
Give/Get
Balance = Respect
Be careful not
to condition your client to keep asking for more, time, scope creep
BUT they need
to be asking for more. Healthy
Do - Scorecard…
Prioritize a list of Gives/Gets. Match numbers for each ranked item.
List “Gives” –
info, proposals. trials, better terms, Sales Engineer time, consulting,
extension
on trial, discounts
List “Gets” –
decision process, timeline, meetings with seniors, budget,
referrals, testimonials
Sales is making
connections and helping people out
Be as objective
as possible. Not emotional. Practical
Best sales
movies – Pursuit of Happiness. Tommy Boy.
Stop pitching – conversations
Helping – not commissions
– we cannot do everything. We have great
partners
Help wherever you can
Follow GaryV –
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook”
Read Blinkest
(book summaries)
Moves:
“I’m confused”…
“you said this, but this happened.” Hold them accountable
Never say,
“just checking in”
Pick up the
phone!
Set
expectations
Do – Summary
email. Let them know before you send it
List key action items for both … (active listening) … ask for confirmation
Hold accountable
Decision date? Put 15 minutes on the calendar
Missed? Resend
Confirm “what is best way to communicate with you”
I will get back to you within 24 hours… what can I expect from you?
ALWAYS start “The reason for my call is…”
Influence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini - Reciprocity. Give reason
Keep emotions
out
Have a
walk-away line… do not cross it!
Handoff from
Sales to production/service… (at 40:00+)
Kick-off deck
…?
Use “Summary
Email” to follow up call… and start next meeting for clarification
…?
Get paid for pilot
Have detailed
success criteria
…?
Sales Stacks:
Owler – target
account news
Google Alerts
Hubspot to
Zapier to service tools
https://app.contactually -CRM (like Zendesk)
https://www.crystalknows.com/ - get psyched
?...Todapt –
email
https://leadiq.com/account/plans – profiling, emails
Panda Doc –
contracts, sow, stripe for recurring billing
Custom token/fields
CloseIO
...?
Sendbloom –
good for workflows
>
Leadsboost – data
ZoomInfo
Uber conference
Pipedrive
Hubspot
Hunter – email
> Banana
Tag – cleaner
Linkedin
VentureApp?
Drift >
Zapier > Slack
>
Crunchbase
CharlieApp –
meeting prep data
Feedly
Sanebox
Any
suggestions? (Should there be a collaborative MAB community wiki?)
FYI, I have a list of tips on "Selling Out" at http://bit.ly/TipsOnSellingOut
FYI, I have a list of tips on "Selling Out" at http://bit.ly/TipsOnSellingOut
David Cutler
Managing Director - www.CreativeChaos.co
617-331-7852 - dcutler@eatmedia.com
www.DavidCutler.net
Managing Director - www.CreativeChaos.co
617-331-7852 - dcutler@eatmedia.com
www.DavidCutler.net
About MAB
Managing an
Agency Business
(MAB) is a quarterly event series focused on
bringing
Boston-area agency founders/owners/managers together to discuss
the 'business'
of running an agency. Topics of conversation include business
development,
operational management, developing culture and anything other
than the actual
services you offer your clients. MAB is not another networking
event for hand
shaking and business card swapping but rather an intimate
gathering of
peers looking to share their trials/tribulations in building successful
agency
businesses.
This post is at:
bit.ly/Agency_Pipeline_MAB14